Roadway and bridge design has never been and will never be a small task for civil engineering professionals. Preliminary mapping surveys, bench marks, locating property lines, locating features in close proximity to the project (buildings, fences, trees, driveways, other roads, water features, culverts, etc.), cross-sections, impact assessments, cost estimates and more are just a part of what’s required to get the process underway.

Then there’s the actual conceptual design, engineering, detailing and construction. In this age of technology, automation, integration and building information modeling (BIM), though, project information is more readily available and the conceptual design process can be completed much more quickly.

Recently, Bentley Systems announced the release of a new BIM software that aims to accomplish just that.

On the Open Road

OpenRoads ConceptStation is a new modeling application that allows civil engineering professionals to create conceptual road and bridge models much more quickly—within hours as opposed to days. One of the ways OpenRoads ConceptStation is able to accomplish this is by utilizing relevant BIM data from sources such as existing point clouds, reality meshes, GIS, etc.

Building on that existing BIM data, OpenRoads ConceptStation allows for better decision making by utilizing project cost and engineering drawing tools. The combination of these tools helps to increase design productivity, identify risks and minimize project costs.

These tools allow engineers and designers to evaluate more options and costs during the planning stage of a project. Final conceptual design models are then uploaded to either OpenRoads or OpenBridge. This promises both to streamline the process and to help to ensure that the original design intent is carried through the rest of the project workflow, all the way through construction.

Features for Road Design

So what can users expect to see in OpenRoads ConceptStation?

Some of the key capabilities of the software, as announced by Bentley, include:

GeoCoordination: this feature is intended to help users find, download, import and georeference contextual information for designs from sources such as point clouds, reality meshes, terrain data, images and GIS information. This will help support 3D modeling workflows.

Sketching tools: users will have access to a toolkit designed to help create 3D models rapidly and efficiently. This will include tools for roads, bridges, ramps, guardrails, retaining walls and more.

Project costing: OpenRoads ConceptStation will automatically generate a project’s costs. This will help engineers and planners to identify high-cost items or potential risks, as well as identify necessary quantities of materials.

LumenRT: the software is integrated with Bentley’s visualization and reality modeling software, so users will be able to create realistic settings quickly and without intensive rendering.

PTV VISSIM: the software will also be integrated with PTV VISSIM for traffic analysis and planning.

“OpenRoads ConceptStation allows [us] to easily assemble existing condition data from different sources in the beginning of a project,” explained Mark Urban, senior vice president of design-build projects at HNTB Corporation. “From this base information, we are able to create multiple design alternatives for business development, as both an owner-representative or when working collaboratively with our partners.”